Advanced Communication and Control Technologies for Next-Generation Drones
A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X). This special issue belongs to the section "Drone Communications".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 December 2025 | Viewed by 33
Special Issue Editors
Interests: unmanned aerial vehicles; indoor and outdoor localization applications; remote train control systems; the Internet of Things; wireless networks; 5G; quality of service (QoS); quality of experience (QoE); broadcast networks; network planning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: 4G, 5G and 6G wireless/wired networks; signal processing and data analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: 5G; 6G; Network 2030; mobile radio systems; wired networks; Internet of Things; localization systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: electronics and communication engineering; digital signal processing; machine learning; FPGA
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The evolution of both aerial and underwater drone technologies is transforming modern industries by offering innovative solutions for surveillance, transportation, inspection, and environmental monitoring. However, as the operational complexity of drones increases, there is an urgent need for advanced communication frameworks and sophisticated control systems. Intelligent asset management strategies are also crucial to ensure their safe, reliable, and efficient deployment across diverse sectors. Traditional communication systems and basic control mechanisms are no longer sufficient to meet the needs of advanced autonomous drone operations. The growing demands for real-time data exchange, high mobility, swarm coordination, energy efficiency, and mission adaptability requires significant technological advancements. Furthermore, integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into drone systems offers unprecedented potential for self-learning navigation, predictive maintenance, and smart decision-making.
Despite these advancements, research gaps remain in seamless communication protocols, resilient control architectures, underwater communication challenges, and domain-specific applications. This Special Issue aims to provide a dedicated platform to bridge the existing research gaps, promote interdisciplinary collaboration, and set future directions for both academia and industry in the field of next-generation drones.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
- Communication technologies for aerial, terrestrial, and underwater drones.
- Advanced control and autonomous navigation systems.
- AI and ML applications for drone intelligence and optimization.
- Multi-drone coordination and swarm communication.
- 6G-enabled swarm communication protocols for cooperative drones.
- Secure communication protocols and cybersecurity for drone networks.
- Edge and fog computing for real-time drone operations.
- UAV-assisted Internet of Things (IoT) for disaster recovery and remote sensing.
- Human–drone interaction and collaborative control systems.
- Drone-to-everything (D2X) communication frameworks.
- Satellite–drone integrated communication architectures.
- Resilient communication strategies for adverse and remote environments.
- Applications of drones in agriculture, logistics, healthcare, defense, environmental monitoring, and maritime operations.
- Regulatory and standardization issues in drone communications.
Dr. Alessandro Vizzarri
Prof. Dr. Franco Mazzenga
Dr. Romeo Giuliano
Dr. Luca Di Nunzio
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- drones
- UAV communication
- underwater drone communication
- drone control systems
- swarm drones
- tethered drones
- AI for UAVs
- FANETs
- robotics
- wireless systems
- mission planning
- intelligent systems
- autonomous vehicles
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